It is a dreary April morning with no sun in sight. We had a thunderstorm during the night with lots of strong wind and rain. My garden beds are still empty and I haven’t even started with getting seeds, plants etc. around. I should have onions and potatoes already in the ground. Time has a way of slipping by and we will enter the fifth month of 2026. How can it be possible that we are entering May already?
Last week on Wednesday my daughters Elizabeth, Susan, Verena, and Lovina along with their preschool aged children and daughter-in-law Grace spent the day at daughter Loretta’s house. We assisted her with cleaning. Dustin and Loretta will be hosting the next church services on Mother’s Day. We washed windows, washed walls and ceilings in the bathrooms, bedrooms and breezeway. We also did her laundry including bedding and curtains. It was a nice day to dry the laundry but then later in the afternoon it started raining.
I came home from Dustin’s and was getting ready to start supper for Joe and I. Sons Benjamin and Kevin were invited to a birthday supper for a friend. Of course Benjamin’s special friend Joanna went with them. Daughter Verena came over and told me she was talking with sister Verena on the phone and Verena told her she feels too weak to get out of her recliner. (Our church allowed sister Verena and our handicapped daughters to have their phone in the house since it’s not easy for them to go to the phone in an outside building.) She wondered if I would come down to her house. Sister Verena lives a little over half a mile from our house. Joe and I went to see what was going on. She hasn’t eaten much in the last few days and I think she was dehydrated. We called her neighbor Mary and asked if she would drive Verena to our house with her Gator. We helped Verena get in our house and I gave her water. She was really thirsty from being dehydrated. When we came back home, Daniel Ray and daughter Verena had supper ready for all of us. How thoughtful and so much help to me! I’m so thankful for Mary too. She walks past Verena’s house every day and often stops to check on her. Bless her heart! Sister Verena has been staying here with us for a week now.
We took her to church on Sunday at daughter Lovina and Daniel’s house. She drove one of son Kevin’s mobility scooters to go there and back. Otherwise she gets around with the aid of a walker. She will be 60 in August. Her health seems to decline gradually. She mostly stays on the couch. I take her meals to her and she mostly just gets up to use the bathroom. She likes to read so I gave her some books to read to help pass her time. I’m not much of a nurse but I think just being around activity helps her. We still have a chairlift on our stairs that son Kevin isn’t able to use anymore. Verena doesn’t want to use it to sleep upstairs, she says she can sleep fine on the couch. She is still sleeping right now but when she wakes I want to make breakfast for her and Kevin. I am thankful for my health so I can help be a caregiver to my loved ones. Don’t get me wrong though, I can feel those aches and pains and all that comes with turning 55 this month. Haha! My right knee keeps locking up on me so I can’t bend it sometimes. I went to get an x-ray done yesterday to see what’s causing it. I will find out the results next week. I wouldn’t worry about it but I want to be able to help others.
On Thursday, I went with Kevin to an appointment in Ann Arbor. We left a little before 1 p.m. and didn’t arrive home until almost 8. It was a long tiresome day for both of us. It is a
Two-hour drive one way. Several readers asked for the recipe of peanut butter spread and cheese spread. I will share one recipe I have for peanut butter spread then I’ll share the other recipes in the following weeks.
God bless!